Journal / 8 November 2023
Reading a wall before you cut into it
Houses built before 1950 in this city are a mix of framing techniques, and knowing which one you are looking at changes what is safe to remove.
Balloon framing, platform framing, true full-dimension lumber, or a remodel-era mix of all three under one roof — an old house rarely tells you which one it is from the outside. Opening the wrong wall on an assumption is how a renovation finds a structural surprise the hard way.
Before we cut anything load-bearing, we identify the framing type, confirm span direction, and — on anything ambiguous — bring in a structural engineer rather than guess from experience alone. It is a slower first step. It is also why we have not had a ceiling come down on a job in fourteen years.